Former abbot, 74, who withdrew £182,000 from his Vatican bank account and went on the run in Albania is found guilty of abusing boys at Catholic school

'A Roman Catholic priest who sexually abused children at an abbey school which became one of Britain's most notorious dens of paedophilia is set to die behind bars.

Andrew Soper, 74, raped and groped pupils at St Benedict's School in Ealing in the 1970s and 80s and used £182,000 from his Vatican bank account to flee to Albania when victims came forward decades later.

Former headmaster father David Pearce and former maths teacher John Maestri had been jailed for abusing children at the £12,000-a-year private school.

Soper flew to the UK to be interviewed by police about the claims in July 2004, June 2009 and September 2010, and was allowed to return to Rome, Italy, on police bail until 11 March 2011.

Seven days before Soper was due to attend a police station in the UK, he flew to Kosovo, Albania, with Euro 204,000 withdrawn from his Vatican bank account.

Today Soper was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault, one count of indecency with a child, 10 counts of indecent assault on boys under 16 and six counts of indecent assault on boys under 18 following an Old Bailey trial.

He showed no emotion as the jury convicted him of each charge by a majority of 10-to-two after deliberating for 14 hours.'